This invention relates to an improved hemispheric moving focus power plant for producing power. In particular, this invention relates to a hemispheric moving focus power plant for producing power from solar energy.
Man's search for an inexpensive renewable energy source is ongoing and age old. In particular, during the early seventies, as the United States was adjusting to oil price shocks, research into solar energy accelerated in hopes of finding technology that could replace usable energy at practical prices. One such project, of which the inventor is aware, was the "Crosbyton" project in the city of Crosbyton, Tex. This project resulted in the development of an out of ground tilted solar reflector for reflecting solar energy to a cylindrically shaped receiver that was hung over the reflector by means of an expensive derrick device. The project required the use of high quality optics and high quality mirrors. Other reflectors have been built which were not tilted and which include receivers that are movable to receive direct and reflected solar energy. An example of such a device is disclosed in Authier, U.S. Pat. No. 4,170,985. In general, prior art devices receive energy from both north and south quadrants, as in Authier, and therefore, are typically tilted to the south. Tilting, as in the Crosbyton project and others, adds expense and increases the difficulty of using the device and results in energy graphs that fluctuate wildly as the sun crosses the sky. Additionally, the receiver of prior art devices is typically a linear cylinder which has essentially one hot spot at its midpoint where the majority of the reflected energy contacts the receiver making it extraordinarily hot at a single point. Thirdly, prior art technology requires high quality optics and, therefore, is extrodinarily expensive. Further, prior art devices focus primarily on thermal technology, oil, water and the like, for heat transfer. Such technology requires high quality optics to generate the heat necessary to drive the system and such thermal devices are difficult to maintain and repair.
Thus, there is a need in the art for providing a power plant apparatus and method that is an alternative to thermal technology, that does not require above ground tilted construction, that utilizes a receiver that receives energy across a broad area and is not focused at a single hot spot, that enables energy to be received from a single quadrant only while discarding other quadrants and that utilizes "fuzzy" low cost optics versus high quality optics. It, therefore, is an object of this invention to provide an improved hemispheric moving focus power plant apparatus and method for providing power which is simple in construction, inexpensive and reliable.